EU-CoWork: Promoting Compassionate Workplaces

Workplaces are life spaces – after all, people spend a significant part of their time at work. In Austria, over 300,000 people are active in the labor market and simultaneously provide care work for relatives. 90,000 people die yearly in Austria. This means that several hundred thousand are confronted with loss, dying, death, grief, and individual mourning experiences – also in the workplace. Digitalization and home office have additionally changed both the working world and the social structure within organizations. Understanding employers, supervisors and colleagues can make a big difference to well-being and workability in times of crisis. In contrast, lack of support can cause deep emotional wounds, restrict health and well-being, and make it difficult to balance caregiving tasks and employment.

The EU-CoWork project examines factors and effects of a supportive work environment. It explores the compatibility of caregiving tasks and employment, and the conditions in companies that support employees in existentially challenging life situations – such as serious illness, dying, death, loss, and grief.

Over five years, supportive measures in different working environments will be co-creatively developed and evaluated with and within organizations in Austria, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, and the United Kingdom. In Austria, the research project is conducted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Aging and Care Research (CIRAC), the Institute of Pastoral Theology, and the Center for Social Research at the University of Graz, as well as the research platform Sorgenetz from Vienna.